I'm leaving for Winnipeg in a few hours, but when I saw this, I just had to share it. A real penny tree! Can you imagine? Wouldn't it be nice to wrap up a bunch and give them to everyone we love?On a completely separate note, do any of you ever do this?
I took my boys to a movie the other day (Meet the Robinsons) and was so bored I spent the first 1/2 hour making a mental list of everything that was WRONG with the story -- too many characters, not enough character development, etc. However, half way through, I slipped out to go to the bathroom, and my mind wouldn't let go of two elements that did work for me.
End result? Before returning to the theatre, I sat outside the main doors on the rug for a few mins frantically jotting down notes. I filled five blank recipe cards and tucked them in my purse. To anyone else my scribblings might look like gibberish, but to me they are the possibility of a wonderful story, and a writer can never have enough of those.
13 comments:
I've done the same thing - analyze the movie I'm watching. Even if I'm enjoying it, I'll nod my head and think, yup, great dark moment scene or yup, great character development. :-)
Guilty as well, especially if the movie drags on and on.
Now, Holly, you've piqued my interest with the penny tree. Is it real or only another clever picture?
Just a clever picture I stumbled across, Larramie.
In the book, the whole point behind "the penny tree" is that my MC's father nails a penny to the trunk of a huge tree and gives it to her as a 'gift'. When you get the book in the mail next week and read it, you'll see the relevance :)
So cool!! Want a penny tree meself now.
I have so done the movie thing. I think the funniest thought I ever had on the subject was while watching the film "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman". I thought this thought, and truly believed it before I realised how strange it was:
"I can't wait till they make this into a movie!"
I wasn't thrilled with that movie, either. Very cool picture, though!
When the penny tree matures, will it give loonies as fruit? :)
I WISH I could watch a movie (or read a book, for that matter) without doing that evaluative stuff...but once in a while I do get swept up in the experience, and then I do my analyzing after the fact.
I can see you, the crazy author lady, manically jotting notes while people stare and whisper...little do they know the genius at work there!
Oh I wish! I'm too busy herding mine back into the seats. It's a catch 22 - have to go when the theatre is practically empty, so now that it's empty there are empty spaces to run up and down in!
Cheers
I keep stumbling into the dollar stores hoping against hope to find a dollar tree. Never happens. Drat! I have seen a tin box - )tempted to make off color joke about the Tinman's wife here.) No, must be appropriately mom'ish. I find myself reading books now with a jaundiced eye. I blame Miss Snark completely. The other day I was reading an author I used to love and she used "delicious" in the same sentence to described foods. It was pathetically lazy. Have a lovey day!
Kim Stagliano (who is tired of seeing every inane comment I make show up in my Google alerts and now uses mostly "other".
Holly,
I find myself doing the same exact thing. Making mental notes if I cannot jot anything down. I think every writer can attest to that. Great post! :*)
Afraid I haven't. I watch a movie strictly for entertainment. If it is boring, I shut it off or leave.
When I was growing up we had plants called money trees in our yard. Us kids would collect the "blossoms" and be convinced we would be rich.
I loved the penny tree when I read the book a and longed for one of my own.
Too cool.
Oh, I love that image. A friend had an abundance party and gave it shiny new pennies wrapped in red tissue to everyone who attended - pennies are special in that way!
When a good idea descends or the makings of a story (how appropriate that you would put your ideas on recipe cards - gathering the ingredients for a great story!), it's the best feeling.
I told my own son about many strange and wonderful plants, shrubs, trees, and animals. He believed me until he was about nine.
It would take a real master to sell a penny tree or a spaghetti bush to a teenager, and I can't even imagine what it would take for a grownup.
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